Thursday, May 26, 2016

You might recall from school days
the story of the young Greek guy who sat beside a pool, saw his image reflected
in the water and fell in love with himself. He couldn’t drag himself away and
sat moonstruck, staring at his reflection until he died.

His name was Narcissus and
psychologists named a mental condition after him. They called it Narcissistic
Personality Disorder, or narcissism, a grandiose view of oneself and a craving for the attention
and admiration of others.

Medical libraries bulge with
studies on narcissism, some of the most recent examining whether social media
and the selfies phenomena are fertilizing the growth of narcissism.

You don’t have to visit a medical
library to find evidence that narcissism is growing. Television, hijacked by
reality shows, is all narcissism now. More and more, so is politics.

Two of the more obvious North
American narcissists among us are Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump. Look around
and you’ll see others.

I don’t know if social media is
contributing to what the experts say is a frightening growth in narcissism. Certainly
new media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagramand others, and omnipresent smartphones and tablets, has increased the
craving for self gratification. We are a society becoming obsessed with wanting to know who is paying attention to
us.

A victim of all this
is informed thinking. Too much of the information needed to build sound
judgment and make good decisions now comes to us in low-cal snippets. New media
snippets in which clicks and views are more important than well–researched
facts.

Never in world
history has the need for informed thinking been so important. Our shrinking
world is cluttered with issues requiring critical thinking based on information
that is as solid as Haliburton rock. Yet the Age of Information contains too
much information that is soft as sand, as trustworthy as shadows.

Reading is the most
effective way of getting informed, but for many of us reading has become simply
glancing. We glance at information ‘lite’ and make our opinions instantly.

Research shows that
while our visual skills are improving significantly, our critical thinking and
analytical skills are declining. This trend will continue as we play more
screen games and puzzles, and allow our kids to spend more time with shoot’em
up games than with books, either paper or digital.

There are plenty of
statistics on our electronic game habits but too many are collected by the
gaming industry to be taken as fact. However, it’s probably safe to say that
more than half of adults and at least one-third of kids under 18 play personal
computer games on laptops, desktops, phones and tablets. Many school teachers
use video games as a classroom teaching tool.

Anyone can confirm
this by spending time with today’s kids. They process visual information quickly because of time
spend with television and screen games. Everything is real time.

Meanwhile, reading skills have
declined. Fewer kids actually read for pleasure these days. Too little time is
spent reading that develops imagination, vocabulary, critical thinking and
seeing the perspectives taught by history.

Reading, whether the words are laid
down in print or digitally, sets us on the road to informed, critical thinking.
Informed thinking helps us to understand change – why it is often necessary and
how to handle it. It also helps us develop better values, and generally become
a better society.

And, it allows us to rise above
rumours, superstitions and political hyperbole and speak intelligently and
forcefully against dumb political decisions.

Speaking of dumb political decisions,
Newfoundland, which has Canada’s lowest literacy rate, will tax books starting
in July. Its provincial sales tax will rise from eight to 10 per cent and be
applied to books. That will be on top of the five per cent federal GST already
charged on books.

It also has announced it will close 54 of the
province’s 95 libraries.

You kind of wonder how all that is going to work
out for them.

I also wonder if things would have worked out better for Narcissus if, instead
of just staring at his reflection, he had brought a book to the pool.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Canadian customs officer feeds my passport into the
scanner, then looks up and asks: “What are you bringing back with you?”

I suppress the urge to say what I always want to say after
crossing the U.S.-Canada border: “Nostalgia. Just a lot of nostalgia.”

Each time I return from the U.S. I am loaded with nostalgia.
I have so many good feelings about America – so many good memories – and find
myself yearning for the way things used to be. Way back, when the border was
barely noticeable.

There is a sense of lost freedom when crossing the border
these days. Security has diluted much of the welcoming you used to feel both
coming and going. The world is smaller and much too dangerous for anyone to drop
their guard.

Few would argue that increased border security is not a
necessity, but it has reduced the pleasure of going south.

Besides security, other factors also lessen the joy of cross
border travel. Exploding health care costs make the possibility of getting
injured or sick in the U.S. a serious concern.

A slip, a fall and a broken arm can cost a visitor to the
U.S. hundreds of dollars. A heart attack that leads to stents or more serious
surgery can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Ontario’s health insurance pays roughly $400 a day for U.S.
hospital costs but U.S. hospitals charge far beyond that. Ontario also reimburses U.S. physician costs, but only
at rates it pays Ontario doctors – rates far below what U.S. physicians charge.

Supplementary is a
must for most of us travelling into the U.S., even for a day or two. Then there
is the worry about your insurance company trying to avoid paying your claim.
Insurance is a business and the fewer payouts, the better the profit.

On top of security and health
insurance worries there also is the concern about the money exchange rate,
which was relatively stable until recent times. In times long past the exchange
rate was really not a factor with the Canadian dollar running at par, or even
above par for long periods like in the 1950s.

Changes to security, health care
costs and exchange rates are what they are and we can’t go back to the way
things were. Still, it is nice to slip into nostalgia.

Years ago we never gave much thought to the border. We used
to walk across the bridge at Pigeon River into Minnesota to buy ice cream with
barely a wave to customs officials. Visits to Duluth to buy clothes for the new
school year or to visit relatives and friends were regular with no thought of
health insurance or counting days outside the country.

My grandfather used to run the Lake Superior shoreline in his
small boat from Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) to Minnesota lakeshore taverns to
drink beer with friends.

Little thought was given to the border, or to specific
citizenship. Rules were not nearly as rigid and many families had a history of
mixed citizenship. It was sometimes hard to remember who was Canadian and who
was American.

My maternal grandmother was born Canadian in Alberta but died
an American in Nevada. My paternal grandmother was a Canadian from the Kenora
area, and lived a chunk of her life in Minnesota before moving the family to
Sault Ste. Marie, then Port Arthur. I can’t even recall if she died a Canadian
or an American.

My dad’s dad was born an American who became Canadianized but
never changed his citizenship. My dad was an American who eventually took
Canadian citizenship.

It was like that back then. Less concern about borders and
citizenship. Less involvement by government.

Back then we considered ourselves North Americans with more
freedom to come and go where and when we wanted. We found little need for
nationalistic labels.

I would love to see a return of those days, but that will
never happen. However, a little nostalgia once in while never hurt anyone.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

He was withdrawn and wary at
our first meeting. That’s understandable considering he spent his earliest days
in the mean neighbourhoods of Los Angeles. Now he is enjoying a stable and
loving life in the San Francisco area.

Rusty is my newest granddog.
He joined my daughter’s family about a year ago and this is the first opportunity
I’ve had to meet him.

He is a fine looking fellow.
Medium size, light reddish brown in colour with fine rusty blond leg and belly
feathers. Amber eyes. He looks a bit like an Irish setter but his face is too
long and pointed for that breed.

He didn’t look this good
when my daughter’s family adopted him from a dog rescue organization in Palo
Alto. He had a cut on his head, was missing a tooth, had kennel cough and had
lost the hair around his eyes.

The rescue group believes he
was an LA backyard dog - dogs left on their own by owners who do not look after
them. He doesn’t like loud voices, indicating he must have been kept by people
who shouted at him a lot.

He was very tentative with
me, watching me out of the corner of his eye and moving away whenever I came
near. He is getting to trust me now and even brings me his ball to throw.

Rusty is my third California
granddog. The first was Koona, a half Huskie, half Malamute my daughter brought
with her from Canada when she moved here roughly 20 years ago. Koona lived to a
ripe old age – 14 – for an Arctic breed.

Then came Ozzie, a pure-bred
Malamute from a breeder who lived in the mountains near the California-Nevada
border. Ozzie, a gorgeous big dog, died unexpectedly at four.

Both were among the most
intelligent dogs I have known. They vocalized a lot, a trait of the Malamute.
They were loving guys, but fiercely independent.

Rusty doesn’t talk. He
communicates with body language. He is loving but more laid back that Koona or
Ozzie. He likes to be around other dogs, and people once he gets to know them.

He joins a long list of
Poling granddogs who have graced our lives - Diesel, Memphis, Emma, Chase,
Tasha, Molly and others whose names I might have forgotten.

The only other living
granddog is Georgia, a Great Dane Harlequin who lives with another daughter in
Mississauga. Georgia is so large that she rides in vehicles with her head
protruding through an open sunroof.

Rusty filled a huge
emotional void left when Ozzie died unexpectedly. When a cherished pet passes it
is difficult to think about getting another.

The day she adopted him, my
daughter took Rusty for a get acquainted walk. Not long into the walk they came
across five white feathers laying in their path.

There is a belief in some
parts of society that a white feather fallen from the sky is sent by the spirit
of a loved one who has passed on. It is a sign that all is fine and life should
be carried on without them.

I don’t know about that, but
I do know that native Americans believe a white feather signifies rebirth and new beginnings.

Rusty has a new beginning
here thanks to an animal rescue group and a family that has given him a loving
home.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

It is remarkable how small events
often mark major change. There was such an event last week.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
spent last Thursday at the Shoal Lake First Nation in Manitoba, which has been
under a boil water advisory for 19 years. (Yes, 19, almost two decades). He was
there for the day, talking with elders, visiting young people at school and taking part in
community activities, including delivering jugs of imported water and attending
a hockey game.

Trudeau being there was not
remarkable in itself. He has indicated his commitment to improving the Third
World living conditions of Canada’s native people.

And, perhaps it is a case of the
son making amends for the sins of the father. Pierre Trudeau’s wrong-headed
1969 White Paper on aboriginal affairs proposed assimilation of native people
into white society, and abolishing all previous legal documents pertaining to
them, including treaties.

The reaction to the White Paper
was so angry and explosive that the elder Trudeau was forced to withdraw it,
incredibly saying: “We’ll keep them in the ghetto as long as they want.” The
quote was so shocking that it earned a place in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

The new Trudeau obviously does not
favour the continuing existence of the “ghettos”. Hopefully he sees that assimilating
all native people into an urban culture is not the answer to improving their
living conditions. No government should force any people to abandon their
culture.

The most remarkable change
signalled by the Shoal Lake visit concerned the news media. The only media
accompanying Trudeau to Shoal Lake was Vice Media, the gonzo digital news and
information newcomer that sometimes blurs the lines between news and advertising.

The howling outrage from the
national media was loud and immediate. Trudeau was showing disdain for the
traditional media by leaving them out of the visit. Such an important story
needed coverage by important media, not a wild and wet-behind-the-ears pup like
Vice.

By taking along Vice, and not the
big girls and boys like the Globe and Mail and CBC, Trudeau signalled just how
less important traditional media have become. People increasingly get their national
news from non-traditional sources such as Vice.

Vice, which started in the 90s as a
counter culture magazine in Montreal, now is an international media
conglomerate with various websites said to attract 60 million viewers a month.

The Shoal Lake visit showed how
new media operations are years ahead of traditional media in terms of
creativity and initiative. The prime minister did not invite Vice to come with
him to Shoal Lake. Vice invited him.

Last fall Vice produced a
documentary on the lack of clean drinking water in many native communities. (My
last count was 85 communities). It planned to do more on this issue, so when
Trudeau was elected, Vice suggested the new prime minister accompany a Vice
crew to a remote reserve to see problems first hand. Trudeau agreed and picked
Shoal Lake as the place to visit.

That’s the kind of initiative and new
thinking that traditional news media such as daily newspapers, national
television and radio have lacked as they fight to survive in the digital news age.
Many have cut, and continue to cut, their journalistic staff. Many have replaced editorial leadership with accountants
and soup salesmen who know much about bottom lines, but little about
professional news gathering and public service.

Certainly, Vice and other new
media lack some good journalism practices needed to deliver news that people
can trust. Traditional media have developed and refined those important
policies and practices over many decades but need new media type spark to
become more relevant.

Some will argue that the Shoal
Lake deal with Vice is just another example of Trudeau’s style without substance.
More posing for the cameras. Perhaps, but he is showing aggressive new thinking
more in tune with younger generations. Time will show if his thinking and style
make life better for all Canadians.

So the Shoal Lake caper put the
national media’s nose out of joint. Asuggestion to those once mighty newsrooms: Get over it and get going
with fresh thinking. Either that, or get left behind.